Cupid's Latest Victim
by agent000
Summary: When Jack sees Cupid about to shoot someone who would likely cause the Bennetts a lot of harm, he does the only thing he can think of and jumps in the way of the arrow, getting shot himself. Now he's unwillingly a victim to Cupid's magic, and he finds himself falling for... Mrs. Bennett?
1. Chapter 1

_**Of all things, I'm starting yet another fanfic! Sorry about that, guys. *chuckles awkwardly* In my defense, my writing this is an attempt to keep any sort of shipping out of "Imaginary Hellos", since that story is supposed to just be about a family relationship between Jack and the Bennetts, not a romantic one. Plus I just wanted to see where this would go if I let it out.**_

_**So yes, I'm actually writing a shipping fic, believe it or not. With a very weird ship. *scratches head* Just give it a chance. I'm pretty sure most of you will at least be amused.**_

_**Anyway, without further ado, onto the story!**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own ROTG. And this is the fanfiction website, so I don't know why people even put these disclaimers up since it's obvious. But whatever, I'm not one to violate the sacred tradition of disclaimers. :P**_

Anyone who thought Cupid was just trying to make the world a better place didn't know who Cupid was. Anyone who thought that Cupid was just a mass of lovey dovey nothingness _really_ didn't know who Cupid was. Unfortunately for Jack, he knew exactly the kind of person Cupid really was, because the guy reminded him entirely too much of himself.

He was just chilling at home in Burgess, well, to be more accurate, he was spying on Jamie's home in Burgess, when he just happened to notice the little winged troublemaker come into view. He normally tried to ignore what Cupid did as best he could, despite how difficult it could sometimes be. But this time set the hairs on the back of his neck on end.

The guy was hovering right in front of the Bennett house, which may or may not be a problem in itself, though Jack couldn't remember a time when Cupid hadn't been a problem. But then, to make things worse, Mrs. Bennett just happened to stumble outside at that minute to deposit a bag full of trash in the trash bin.

Jack gripped his staff hard enough that his knuckles turned white as he saw Cupid raise his arrow and draw the bow taught as he pointed the arrow at his next victim. No, it wasn't Mrs. Bennett that Cupid targeted, but the town drunk across the street, which wouldn't have been a problem if he hadn't been staring right at Mrs. Bennett the whole time.

Jack's nerves went on overdrive as he wracked his mind for what to do. It was clear that Cupid was trying to set these two up just because he thought it was funny. Jack normally knew better than to try and interfere with Cupid's pranks, but this was Jamie's mom. Mrs. Bennett was lonely enough that with enough persuasion, she might even marry the guy. If Cupid had his way, Jamie could very well have to deal with this creep for the rest of his life. Jack couldn't allow that.

Cupid released his arrow, and Jack realized that he'd run out of time to think. So he did the first thing that came to mind, and darted between Cupid and his intended victim, spreading out his arms in a desperate attempt at keeping the arrow from reaching its target.

One thing that Jack forgot to calculate was that the arrow had to go somewhere, and no one, not even Cupid himself, was immune to the effects of Cupid's arrows. Quicker than a flash, the arrow plunged itself right into Jack's chest, and he doubled over in pain as he collapsed to the ground. His eyes were closed tight as he reached up to grasp the arrow and pull it out of his chest, but it was already dissolving even as he did so. The magic was already beginning to take effect. He was relieved that this meant that the Bennetts wouldn't have to deal with that other guy, but he was suddenly smacked with the weight of what all this meant for him, and he began to shake.

The magic wouldn't take hold until he opened his eyes and saw someone. He knew that much. How long could he go without opening his eyes? Knowing him, not long. Could he keep his eyes closed until someone he was okay with falling desperately in love with strolled into view? He couldn't actually think of any such person in existence, which would mean he would have to wait a very long time, and he knew he would open his eyes before then.

Still, he was going to hold out as long as he could, especially considering how it had been Cupid himself who had been just in front of him when he'd gotten shot, and the last thing he wanted was to fall in love with the little troublemaker. It was bad enough that Jack caused all the trouble he did without turning the two of them into a dangerous duo.

A thumping sound made Jack's eyes suddenly snap open as his mind decided it had to discover the source of the noise just in case it had intended to kill him. Traitorous mind. Thankfully, Cupid had had the foresight to move out of Jack's line of vision, probably not wanting to deal with a lovesick Jack any more than Jack wanted to deal with it.

Jack breathed a sigh of relief at this, but he breathed too soon, for he soon noticed the retreating form of Mrs. Bennett heading back to her house, having completed trash duty. His breath hitched and his heart stopped as he was sucked into the moment. Cupid, seeing this, developed a mad case of the giggles, and Jack instantly whirled on him.

"What do you think you were doing? You could have caused someone to get hurt by that stunt!"

The obnoxious man casually rubbed his fingers together as he looked on with a devious smirk. "And yet," he said, "no one got hurt, did they?"

Jack stamped his foot and let out a slight growl before launching himself into the air to meet Cupid eye to eye. He crossed his arms and glared at the guy, daring him to even try and breathe in his presence. "Things almost got dire!" said Jack. "This family is very dear to me, and I won't have you ruining their lives for sport."

Cupid only began to crack up all the more at this, leaving Jack to raise an eyebrow as he wondered about the sanity of the being before him. Then again, no one other than Cupid's mother and his wife were likely to ever make the mistake of thinking the guy was sane. "Well then," said Cupid, "it seems your little family is about to get even more dear to you than ever before."

Jack blanched as he realized the implications of that. People fell in love on their own all the time, but whenever Cupid intervened, people usually lost their minds. This would not help the Bennetts at all to have a crazy, love-sick Guardian on the loose around their house. "Okay, look," he said, "Just tell me how to reverse this and we can forget all about it."

This only caused Cupid to laugh all the harder at Jack's predicament, and Jack got a sinking feeling that the solution would be much harder than he thought. He thoughts were only confirmed when Cupid said, "Oh, you silly, silly Jack Frost. You actually think there's a cure?"

Jack slowly hung his head. "Then what do I do?"

Cupid just shrugged and then flew off as he continued laughing. Before he was out of earshot, he called back, "Enjoy your sweetheart, loverboy!"

Jack glared at the retreating man and wanted to fly after him and give him a piece of his mind, or perhaps instead fly to the north pole and see if North had any magical remedies for getting struck by one of Cupid's arrows, but there was a weight on his heart that he'd never experienced before. It made it almost impossible to think of leaving.

He sighed and whispered to no one in particular. "I guess that you win this round, Cupid, but I'm not going down without a fight."

Jack then set down on the ground and turned to head back toward his lake, which would have been the wiser choice, but found himself hopping up into the tree in the Bennetts' front yard instead. "What am I doing?" he said. "Jack, you're letting the arrow get to you. Stop it!"

Of course, no amount of logic had ever talked one of Cupid's arrows out of taking hold of its victim, and Jack found himself scooting further and further into the tree's branches to conceal himself lest Jamie or Sophie come home and figure out what he was up to, which would have been mortifying. All of this in the hopes of catching a glimpse of Mrs. Bennett one more time.

"Jack, you're being an idiot, stop it!" He slapped his forehead a couple times as though that would somehow drive the unwanted magic out of him, but the only effect was a slight headache. "She can't even see you. And she's your first believer's mother. This could really ruin your relationship with Jamie. Stop it!" Still, the magic persisted, and there was nothing he could do about it.

By and by, Jamie and Sophie came strolling into the front yard, apparently done with school for the day. Jack smiled at the sight of them, but at the same time, his heart rate quickened at the thought of them catching him hiding up here in their tree without having an adequate explanation as to why, aside from his attempting to spy on their mother. That excuse even creeped him out if he was honest with himself. Sophie was probably still too young to understand the complications this could cause, but if possible, Jack was going to do everything in his power to hide his predicament from Jamie.

After a couple moments which dragged themselves out to feel like a couple millennia to Jack, the kids finally made their way inside the house, and Jack breathed a huge sigh of relief at having not been caught. Time to get out of this tree before anyone other than that stupid Cupid had the chance to find him in it.

Only a moment or two after his feet had once again touched the ground did the Bennetts' front door open and a couple little Bennett monsters came running out, squealing with newfound freedom. Jamie looked up, his face taking on a look of delight as he shouted, "Jack!" and the two ran up to meet him.

Jack sighed in defeat and smiled at the kids, though he wasn't entirely sure whether the smile reached his eyes. Was he disappointed that it was the kids who had come out and not their mother? What was wrong with him? Surely people who had been attacked by Cupid could control themselves more than this... couldn't they? He'd always made fun of Cupid's victims in the past for acting like deranged animals after being shot, but now he was starting to feel a bit guilty for having done so. Keeping one's composure was harder than it looked. He really needed to get to the north pole and get help.

"Hey, Jack," said Jamie, "Can we have a snowball fight?"

"Yeah!" said Sophie, jumping up and down in her excitement. "Snow! Snow! Snow!"

He groaned as he felt his mind slowly losing the battle against his heart. There would be no reaching the north pole this day. He just hoped that the magic wouldn't have a chance to set in too much by the time he finally made it to North.

"Alright," he finally said. "But I'm in a weird mood, so you guys had better run, because I'm not showing any mercy this time!"

The children uttered surprised squeals of fear and delight as they scampered off to find whatever sort of shelter was available before Jack had a chance to go on his homicidal snowballing rampage. He gave them a thirty second head start before he blew into his hands and created his first weapon of snow.

"Better run," he said, "because here I come, ready or not!" And off he flew.

_**Poor, poor Jack. He knows he's gonna lose his mind if he's not careful, yet he can't even ask for help. *chuckles evilly* This should be fun.**_

_**Anyway, what do you guys think thus far? Like it? Love it? Hate it? Got anything you'd like to see happen? I listen very carefully to what my reviewers think and try to use their advice in my story, so feel free to speak up! Even if you don't like it, that's fine too. Just let me know why. :)**_

_**I'll try to post the next chapter soon, and hopefully it'll be longer since I rarely ever post 2,000 word chapters. This is just where it felt like ending this time. In any case, see you all next time!**_


	2. Chapter 2

_**Wow, I'm surprised people actually liked this story thus far. I was kind of worried about the weird pairing, but I'm glad to see people are okay with it thus far. Thank you!**_

_**Anyway, here's another chapter for you. And I uploaded some cover art, though I apologize that it's not very good yet. I haven't quite finished it, so some of the proportions are a little odd, but I wanted this thing to have a cover sooner rather than later. I'll post the finished one when I get it there.**_

_**But yeah, I'll stop babbling and let you get on with the story!**_

_**Disclaimer: Still don't own ROTG.**_

It was always fun to engage in snowball fights with Jack, but Jamie couldn't help but notice that something was off about Jack. He realized that Jack had admitted that he'd been in a weird mood, hence the brutal snowballing that he and Sophie hadn't a prayer of coming out of safely, but that didn't make Jamie stop wondering what was eating at Jack.

After the three of them had tired themselves out, they stretched themselves out on the vacant lot next door to their house and looked up at the rapidly darkening sky. Jamie hoped he could see some stars tonight since winter nights came really early in the day, but stars were rarely ever visible on nights when Jack was around due to snow cloud cover. It was just one of those strange things that came with having the spirit of winter as a close friend.

He turned to face said spirit of winter and said, "You okay, Jack?"

Jack seemed a little startled by the question, but recovered quickly enough to say, "Yeah, I'm okay," followed by a not very convincing chuckle. Jamie wasn't fooled, no matter how many times Jack tried to take him for a fool like this.

"No, you're not. What's bothering you?"

"Nothing!" Jack had shouted way louder than was necessary and then bolted upright as though his own voice had startled him. He then proceeded to shake his head as though he didn't believe the words his own mouth kept uttering. Jamie nodded in satisfaction. He'd learned long ago that when Jack got in the mood to try and lie about what was bothering him, his body language would always betray the truth. Right now, Jack's body language was practically screaming for help about whatever it was.

"It is too something," said Jamie as he sat up next to Jack and tried his best to make eye contact despite Jack's stubbornness on the issue. "Your body language is practically oozing with... with upsetness."

Jack scoffed and rolled his eyes, then pulled his knee up to his chest and rested his chin on it, another sign that Jack was very bothered by something. "It's nothing that concerns you," he said, then quickly seemed to regret his choice of words and amended with, "I mean, it's nothing that you need to worry about."

"Hmph." Jamie propped his chin on his fist and regarded his friend carefully. If only Jack's body could talk in the way his voice was refusing to do, because he was sure that Jack's body would be happy to tell him what was the matter. "Sounds like it actually does have something to do with me."

Jack's eyes then went wide with horror as he stared at Jamie. His gums flapped uselessly for a couple minutes as he tried to come up with something useful to say, and Jamie nodded to himself that he was right once again. Finally, Jack got control of himself enough to say, "When did you get so smart?"

"Jack," said Jamie, "I'm twelve. It'd be sad if I couldn't read my best friend by now."

Jack just pouted then, but didn't say anything more. Jamie couldn't help but find Jack's expression a bit comical. He'd been chastised like a naughty puppy and was now sulking simply because he didn't like getting caught. Hopefully he could actually pry an explanation out of Jack now.

But before that could happen, his mom opened the door and called, "Jamie! Sophie! Dinner's ready!" Sophie bolted up and ran back to the house with a second thought, but Jamie hesitated, afraid to leave Jack when he was like this.

He turned to look at his friend and was shocked to see Jack transfixed by the sight of his mother standing there. It was like Jack had seen a ghost. "Jack? You okay?" No response, so he waved his hand in front of Jack's face. "Hello, Earth to Jack."

Jack finally blinked and came back to reality. "Oh, uh, sorry." He ran his fingers through his hair as Jamie's mom went back into the house with Sophie. "Sorry, I... I don't know what came over me."

Jamie then rolled his eyes and punched Jack in the shoulder. "You didn't do anything wrong, Jack. You're just acting weird. What's the matter with you?"

Jack finally broke down enough to shake his head and sighed. "I don't entirely know, Jamie. I'll just... I think I should just go and talk to North. H-He might be able to help me out."

Jamie wasn't entirely sure he should trust Jack on his own when he was still acting all funny like that, but his mother was expecting him, so it wouldn't do to keep sitting out here demanding answers from Jack when he wouldn't be able to explain things very well to his mother. He was just going to have to hope the Guardians could help Jack with whatever he was going through. He sighed in defeat. "Alright. Just make sure you go straight there. Don't get distracted, okay?"

Jack reached over and ruffled Jamie's hair and smirked. "I swear I'll head straight to the north pole, okay? Will that make you stop worrying?"

"Maybe," said Jamie, straightening out the mess Jack had made of his hair. "Just get yourself taken care of, or I'm going to keep pestering you about this."

Jack held his hands up in surrender. "I'm going, I'm going!"

Jamie stood up and began heading back to the house, but turned around and headed back to face Jack for a moment to say, "You had better!" He then went into his house and sat down to dinner. Hopefully Jack would keep his promise.

* * *

><p>As often as Jack enjoyed popping up at the north pole unannounced these days since he could actually get away with it, North didn't anticipate a visit from the boy anytime soon. He more or less knew the boy's schedule by now, and Jack had been spending a lot of time in Burgess during the past week keeping an eye on his believers since most of them were in that critical time of their lives where they could stop believing at any moment. While one couldn't stop such a thing from happening, it was important to help these kids transition seamlessly into the next phase of life, not to mention gain some younger believers in the process.<p>

So he was not expecting to turn a corner and practically bowl over a certain winter sprite who was supposed to be tending to his little flock in his hometown. Once he recovered from the shock, he said, "Jack! What you doing here? Thought you were in Burgess."

"I-I was." Jack seemed to be unreasonably nervous about something, and he fidgeted with his staff as he broke eye contact with North. "It's just-something came up."

North raised an eyebrow at this, but gestured for Jack to continue. Jack's nervousness only seemed to increase as he started to shake. Something pretty bad must have happened. Was Pitch making a nuisance of himself? But Jack had been so strong against Pitch. Would he really be this scared over that? It had to be something else, but what would get Jack Frost this scared?

"North," said Jack through raspy words. "I was shot."

Now both of North's eyebrows were up. "Shot?! Where are you hurt?"

Jack only shook his head and took a deep breath. "Not like that. I mean..." He took another breath and then looked up to North. "...by Cupid."

North's instinctive reaction to this announcement was to laugh, since it was very hard not to laugh at such a predicament no matter who was involved. But after a few laughs escaped him, he suddenly realized the implications of such an incident and his mood did an about face. "You were _what?!_"

Jack winced and ducked away from North. "I got an arrow in the chest. I-I was hoping you could help me... before I lost control of myself."

The pieces finally fell into place, and North's shock slowly turned to rage. This was unacceptable. "Cupid is not allowed to shoot Guardians! It is part of agreement! We are going to have to-"

Jack waved frantically to get North's attention until he calmed down and paid attention to whatever Jack was trying to say. "No, no, North, it was my fault! I jumped in the way."

Again, North was furious, and he stormed toward Jack as Jack staggered backward a few steps. "What were you thinking, Jack?! Do you realize what could happen with a lovestruck Jack Frost on loose?"

Jack stared at North a few moments before he gulped and then nodded. "That's why I came to you for help. Can't you help me?"

North closed his eyes and rubbed at the bridge of his nose. He really did not need this right now. Thankfully it was after Christmas, but this would have been bad no matter the time of year. "Jack," he said, attempting to hold his voice even and not yell at the poor boy more than he'd already done. "This is big deal. If there was cure, this would not be such big problem. If anyone has cure, it is Cupid."

Jack then hung his head and seemed to choke on a sob, and North's tone softened upon seeing the boy like this. For being struck by Cupid, he was surprisingly well in control of his faculties. "But... Cupid said that there wasn't a cure." He then turned to look up at North again and said, "Does that mean I'm stuck like this?"

North didn't know what to say, but he didn't want to merely dish out doom and gloom upon their youngest member of the group and discourage the poor boy. Especially since Jack was the Guardian of Fun, and this incident had every possibility of destroying Jack's center if it wasn't approached well. He rubbed his beard in thought for a moment as he considered the tricky situation, then finally settled on asking, "Who did you see first?"

There was a moment of hesitation on Jack's part, then finally a sigh of resignation as he said, "Jamie's mom."

North placed a hand on his forehead as he began to pace. He knew he was going to come down with a headache at this rate. Jack was smitten by a mortal woman? The mother of the last light, no less? This could cause quite a few complications for Jack if it wasn't handled well.

He made his way over to the controls beneath the giant Globe of Belief, then turned and eyed the young boy who looked positively lost and ashamed for what had happened. North didn't know why Jack had gotten in Cupid's way yet, but he would find out soon enough. "I will call Guardians, Jack. We will find solution."

And with that, he pushed in the lever and sent out the northern lights signal. The other Guardians would arrive within minutes. Surely they would be able to help Jack figure out what to do. They had to.

* * *

><p>Of all the Guardians, it was Tooth who was the first to start figuring out the reason for their being called. North was pacing back and forth with his hands clasped behind his back, clearly deep in thought. Jack was slumped against the wall in a corner, his head in his hands and his hood pulled up to obscure his face from view.<p>

Tooth did a quick recheck of the immediate facts in their environment before she turned to North and said, "Did something happen to Jack?"

Once she'd mentioned it, Bunny and Sandy seemed to agree with her assessment of the situation and began demanding answers of North. The old man simply responded by holding up his hands and ordering everyone to shut up and give him a chance to explain why he had called them there. The silence fell so fast that it was almost audible.

North pinched the bridge of his nose while he heaved a heavy sigh and looked toward the moon as if that would somehow solve the problem, then turned toward where the rest of them were standing and said, "It seems Jack has been shot."

A chorus ensued of Tooth repeating North's word choice of "Shot?!" at the same time as Bunny's word choice of "Blimey!" Before North could explain, she got a little too close to North for his own personal comfort and said, "Is he okay?"

"Give me time to finish!" North snapped, then crossed his arms and took a longing look at Jack, who was now rocking in place as though he had a huge burden on his heart. "Jack has been shot... by Cupid."

Shrieks exploded from Tooth and Bunny, and an insistent exclamation point popped over Sandy's head. "But that's against the law!" said Tooth. "Didn't he know Jack was a Guardian?"

"I'm gonna wring his bloody little neck!" No one even had to turn to know that the threat came from Bunny, who was suddenly being extra protective over Jack. He gestured to the boy across the room. "How is he expected to work in this condition?"

"Surely there's something we can do?" said Tooth.

"If there isn't," said Bunny, "then I'm gonna go and beat the living daylights out of a certain love god until he gives us the the information we need."

"Guys..." said North, but Tooth and Bunny didn't notice. Jack placed his hands over his ears and began rocking harder.

"What was he thinking?" said Bunny, "Is he trying to start a war?"

"Well, if he is, my fairies and I are more than prepared to fight." As if in answer to this, the fairies who currently accompanied Tooth snapped to attention and then saluted her.

"Uh, guys..." said North once again to deaf ears. Sandy then noticed Jack's distress over the situation and began waving to get the attention of the two squabbling Guardians.

"I'll send the girls looking everywhere for Cupid right away, and then I'll let you know where he is."

"I'll storm the castle or whatever he lives in now with a squadron of egg golums and...

"STOP IT!"

Everyone instantly stopped talking and turned to the source of the disruption. Jack was wildly shaking his head back and forth. "Stop it! Just stop it! It was me. It was all me!"

The two stopped arguing and just stared at Jack while uttering a simultaneous, "What?"

North came to the rescue. "He says he jumped in front of arrow, but I not know why."

Next came the pressuring gazes of all the Guardians upon Jack, and Tooth's insistent plea of, "Jack, why would you do that?"

Jack finally lifted up his face to look at the rest of them, sighed, and then said, "He was pointing his arrow at a man I didn't trust. And the guy was looking at Jamie's mother."

Tooth was once again the first one to get the implications of what Jack was saying, and she gasped. "Would Jamie's mother have even paid attention to that man though?"

Jack shrugged. "Honestly, she hasn't had a man give her much attention in years, according to Jamie. She might have just married him on the spot."

Tooth's hands clasped over her chest. The very thought of what could have been made her heart ache. "Jamie could have wound up with a terrible father if you hadn't jumped in the way." It was tragic, but it was sadly not against their laws for Cupid to behave that way. It was up to him to trigger love and passion in whichever humans he saw fit. Jack nodded at Tooth, and seemed relieved that she finally understood.

Bunny didn't seem entirely convinced, however. "Yeah, well, how do we know Frostbite isn't just being suckered into some lie Cupid told him? He's not exactly right in the head right now."

Jack glared at Bunny and pushed himself up to stand, then approached Bunny. "I'll have you know that while I may not be thinking straight about Jamie's mom, that the rest of me functions just the way it always has!"

Another gasp from Tooth. "Oh, Jack, you're lovestruck over Jamie's mother?"

Another "Blimey!" from Bunny. "What were you thinking? That swapping out a mortal loser of a man for an immortal winter sprite was just going to magically solve the problem?" He raised his arms and shook them in sync with his words to punctuate his meaning. "You. Are. The spirit. Of winter! You can't replace a mortal, you'll bloody lose your mind!"

"But, it's in the past now," said Jack, who looked like he was about to say something else when Bunny interrupted again.

"Don't you try and tell me about time, Frostboy, because I know time. And time is one thing you haven't got. I'll bet you don't last a week with holding yourself back."

Frost crackled across the floor as the look on Jack's face went from one of irritation, to one of shock, to one of rage. A breeze picked up inside the building and began to swirl around them all. There was no doubting just how angry Jack was now.

"If I thought you could take me back in time to fix it, I would have asked. But I know if I fixed that, then the Bennetts will once again be put at risk of dealing with that other man, which would make this all meaningless. I didn't come here for a lecture or to be told what I should have done. I came because I thought you might be able to help me a little bit, and if not, you could at least stand by my side, because you're my friends. I thought at least you guys would believe in me, but it seems I was wrong!"

Without giving any further warning, Jack hopped into the air and shot through the open skylight in the ceiling before anyone had the chance to say or do anything about it. Tooth called out for Jack, but it was too late. He had already left the building.

After a moment of processing what had just happened, Bunny finally spoke up. "Do you think I overreacted?"

The other three Guardians shared a look with each other and chose not to say anything, since they figured Bunny knew the answer to that well enough.

North began his pacing ritual again, once again clasping his hands behind his back. "Jack not safe by himself. But where to look?"

At this point, Tooth sighed in exasperation. How could all these guys be so stupid during a time like this? "Isn't it obvious?" she said. "He can't resist the arrow for long. He's going straight back to the Bennetts' house."

North snapped out of his pacing ritual long enough to stare wide-eyed at Tooth like he was wondering why it was that he hadn't thought of that. He recovered fairly quickly though and started a determined prance.

"To the sleigh!" He began marching off in the direction of the stables, still talking to himself. "We find Jack. We protect him. Because we are his friends. Is why he came for help. He needs us."

The others nodded and fell into sync behind North, despite Bunny rolling his eyes at the thought of riding in that sleigh again. But everyone knew that if they were going to try and catch a crazed Jack, they needed to be able to be airborne. Even Bunny was fully aware of that.

"Alright, let's get this over with," said Bunny. "Spring is just around the corner and I don't have time to waste."

No one argued, because they knew what Bunny was really saying without him having to say it. Jack didn't have time to waste. He could end up killing himself if he was still like this in the spring and trying to stay in Burgess no matter what. Something had to be done fast. Hopefully they could find a solution fast enough to save Jack from himself.

_**Thanks for reading, guys! I would adore some reviews. They let me know what the readers think so I can cater to them better. If you have any ideas, definitely don't hesitate to share them.**_

**_In any case, I will see you all next time. I'll try to update really soon! :)_**


	3. Chapter 3

_**Phew! Finally got this chapter written up. Sorry it took me a while. I wrote half of this early in the week, then got distracted by plot bunnies and had to escape their diabolical plans for me before I was able to get back and finish this chapter. I may yet become a victim to the plot bunnies though.**_

_**Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter. The plot is moving faster than I'd anticipated, but oh well. Let the story go where it wants to go, haha. Hope you like it!**_

_**Disclaimer: I still don't own this freaking movie, no matter how much I wish I did.**_

Why he had come back to the Bennett house, he couldn't say. Jack was sure it was bound to be the first place the Guardians would search for him, but he couldn't seem to help it. He knew he wasn't right in the head at the moment, but he just couldn't make himself stay away for long.

His heart lurched at that thought and he felt his eyes start to sting a bit, but he blinked them into submission once again before he gave into a fit of melancholy madness. So maybe he was losing a bit of control of his life, but that was no reason to be unnecessarily emotional about it. It was going to be hard to deal with, but surely there was something that could be done about it, right? There had to be.

He landed back in the same tree he had hidden in before and just casually stared at the house, hoping that no one would notice him up in this tree. It was creepy, and he knew it. He really needed to stop it, and he tried mentally beating himself over the head to get his body to comply. It didn't work. The bond created by the arrow was just too strong, and he had no idea how to fight it.

Perhaps everything would be fine for the night, he reasoned. Everyone seemed to be asleep, so there was nothing to trigger his wild emotions. He breathed a sigh of relief and rested his back against the trunk of the tree.

But he had rested too soon, as a light suddenly flicked on in the house. At this hour, that couldn't have been one of the kids. His mind suddenly flared into overdrive at the realization of who was moving around in the house, and before he knew what he was doing, he'd flown out of the tree and up to the nearest window.

Sure enough, Mrs. Bennett was pacing around the kitchen in her bathrobe and slippers, just enjoying her quiet time when the kids were asleep. Jack sighed happily at the sight and pressed his hand against the glass as though that would allow him to pass through the window and talk to her. It was a wish in vain, and he knew it. She had no idea that he even existed. The thought caused a lump to form in his throat, but he did his best to swallow it and not think about such things for the time being.

Frost crackled out from underneath his fingertips, bringing him back to reality as he pulled away from the window and sighed sadly. He should leave before he did something stupid. There was no telling what sorts of stunts he would pull if given the chance now that his heart wasn't working properly, and he didn't want to endanger the Bennetts just because he wasn't thinking.

Before he could fly off, he heard a distinctive boom resonate through the atmosphere that could only be one of North's portals, and he cursed under his breath. He didn't want them finding him here, not right now. They didn't understand what he was going through and would likely just make things worse.

But where could he hide? His eyes darted around, looking for escape, but the extra thought frazzled his brain and made the logic vanish, leaving only his heart in charge of finding a means of escape. He noticed a gap just under the gable of the roof that he felt sure he could fit into. Before he or anybody else could tell what was happening, he had darted up and squeezed through the gap.

Jack choked on the dust inside the crawlspace he now found himself in and squinted to try and see anything in the darkness. This wasn't a very welcoming environment, but it was inside the Bennetts' house. Somehow that thought alone made his heart flutter. She was just downstairs. Was there a way to get down there from here without having to go outside? The last thing he wanted to do was get caught by a bunch of well meaning but stupid Guardians.

They were calling for him. Jack couldn't help but hear them, even hauled up in this crawlspace, but he didn't want them to hear him, so he remained still for the time being. They didn't make any secret of their presence. Especially Bunny. He was cursing up a storm at the fact that they couldn't figure out where Jack was hiding. Jack was even less inclined to reveal his hiding place than before thanks to that. When they were in the mood to be friendly again, maybe he'd consider talking to them, but not before.

By and by, the shouting and calling died down, and then came the boom that indicated them flying away. He finally heaved a sigh of relief at not getting caught and then started feeling his way around the crawlspace as he crawled on hands and knees. A lot of houses had a way into their crawlspace from within the house. He knew because he loved sneaking into houses that were protected against the cold, and that was a great way to do it that no one ever saw coming. Can't keep a determined Jack Frost out of the house, especially not a determined, lovestruck Jack Frost.

His hand dipped all of a sudden as it hit a surface that was slightly lower than the rest of the floor he'd been crawling on. A smile slowly took over his features as he recognised the trap door. It had a good chance of leading into the rest of the house. Jack took a deep breath and then cautiously grasped the trap door and lifted it up as quietly as he could. It wouldn't due to alert Mrs. Bennett to his presence. It was one thing to be a creepy stalker like he was being, but it was quite another thing to scare her while he was doing it.

As soon as he'd carefully extracted the slab of wood from the entrance, he laid it beside him as quietly as he knew how, then hopped down through the hole and alighted soundlessly on the floor. Looking back up at the crawlspace he had just come from, he huffed in disappointment at himself for doing this. Couldn't he be more mature than this? Granted, thus far he hadn't stalked Mrs. Bennett any more than he stalked random people that he didn't know. He was known as quite the trickster, after all, and sneaking up on people was hysterical. This was just the first time that this behavior wasn't a prank of some sort.

Shaking his head to clear his head of the surplus of thoughts that clouded it, he ventured off down the hall, then began to walk down the stairs to where he knew Mrs. Bennett was waiting by herself. He almost made it without attracting even the slightest bit of attention to himself, but he had forgotten about that one rebellious stair that always betrayed Jamie and Sophie when they came downstairs to get themselves a midnight snack. Jamie had taught Jack to step over it whenever he visited so as not to alert his mother to their antics, but now Jack didn't have Jamie here to keep him sensible. His foot fell on the troublesome step, resulting in a nasty screech that he had no idea could come from a piece of wood.

The sound didn't miss Mrs. Bennett. She gasped and spun around, nearly spilling her tea in the process. "Jamie?" she said. When that didn't get a response, she said, "Sophie? Did you have a bad dream, honey?" Jack sighed and just glided his way down the rest of the stairs to avoid setting the poor woman off any further.

But the damage had already been done. She gripped her tea tightly and headed over toward the stairwell. "Who's there?" Upon getting there and seeing no one on the stairs, she blanched for a moment, then seemed to set her resolve and ran up the stairs. After a couple moments of quietly opening each of the kids' bedroom doors to check whether they were actually in there, she hesitantly headed back down the stairs.

Jack swallowed and hung his head guiltily. He'd had no intention of causing her this kind of anxiety. Did her house never pop and click on its own when it settled at night? Perhaps she just knew what sounds the house did on its own and what required a separate entity.

She went and sat back at the table to finish her tea, but she was not as much at ease as before. She kept looking up to check whether there was anyone in the vicinity. Jack wished so badly that he could comfort her and tell her that it was only him being stupid, but she couldn't see or hear him. What could he possibly do?

He took a few steps toward her, then regretted doing so as his foot managed to find yet another rebellious plank of wood on the floor. It didn't let out quite as loud of a shriek as the last one, but it was still quite revealing.

It was a good thing that Mrs. Bennett had actually finished her tea or she might have spilled it. She spun around in her chair, scanning the room nervously. "Who's there?"

"I-It's just me," said Jack, who then sighed. "But of course, you can't hear me, can you?"

There was no recognition on her face, which would have happened if she'd actually heard him. He sighed sadly. Of course he would be cursed to fall for someone who couldn't see him.

But then she did something really strange. Her brow knitted together in concentration, then she set her teacup aside and walked in Jack's direction. Her gaze was not focused on him, which destroyed any hope of Jack's that she might see him, but before he could process what she was doing, she passed right through him.

Jack gasped at the sudden intrusion before spinning around to see that Mrs. Bennett had stopped walking just after having walked through him. She now wore a look of shock on her face and was starting to shiver. Jack supposed that made sense, considering that he was likely to create quite the cold spot if someone walked through him.

But then she did something even weirder and started to sob. It started slowly at first, then increased. Jack blinked, startled at this sudden turn of events. Why was she suddenly so upset after having discovered a cold spot in her house? Maybe she knew that cold spots could frequently be blamed on the supernatural, and she was scared by that?

He grasped her shoulders, though he could tell that she couldn't feel his touch. It made him feel a little better though. "Hey, hey, it's okay. I'm not gonna hurt you. I shouldn't be in here anyway. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry I upset you."

She sniffled and rubbed at her eyes, but continued to sob. Jack was baffled by her behavior, but if anyone was more baffled than Jack, it was Mrs. Bennett herself. She shook her head disbelievingly, then walked back toward the table, passing right through Jack's fingers as she did so. He shook his fingers to get the tingly feeling out of them as he watched her make her way back to the table.

"I'm stupid," said Mrs. Bennett, "I'm so stupid." She sighed dramatically and plopped down into her chair. "Am I so jealous of Jamie and Sophie that I'm bringing my own childhood imaginary friends back?"

Jack didn't understand what she was talking about for a long moment, but when he finally did, his face broke into a huge grin. "Yes!" He leapt across the room and landed beside her. "I was your imaginary friend back then, wasn't I?" He chuckled to himself at the memory. How could he have forgotten about that? She had never actually seen or heard him, but they had managed to communicate well enough.

She'd given up on her imaginary friend ideas when she hit her teens, so to say that this sudden reaction of hers was startling was a bit of an understatement. Had she somehow recognized how he felt when she'd stepped through him?

He grasped her hand, knowing that she wouldn't be able to feel anything but his chill, but he liked the gesture. "Do you remember me from back then, Mrs.- no, I called you Susan back then, didn't I? Is it okay if I call you Susan again?"

There was no recognition on her face, though Jack had expected none. He was just grateful that she seemed to acknowledge his presence in even the smallest way. He sighed heavily, the draft disturbing the locks of her hair a bit.

This didn't go unnoticed by Mrs. Bennett. She closed her eyes and sighed sadly. "Is it even okay for me to have imaginary friends at my age?" She sobbed again. "Have I really gotten that lonely?"

Ouch. Jack wanted so badly to comfort her, but he wasn't sure what he could do when she just assumed that she was making him up to comfort a lonely mind. Still, she had never heard everything he'd said, even when he had been accepted as her imaginary friend, but she'd managed to pick out the important bits. Maybe she still had it in her to do that.

"I've gotten that lonely, Susan," he said. "It happens to a lot of people. It doesn't mean you're crazy. It means that you're having to reach somewhere unusual to make contact with someone. Anyone." He coughed and then gave an awkward little laugh as he hung his head in shame. "Even if that someone happens to be yourself." He bit his lip and refused to say anything that might jeopardize his sanity in her eyes if she did manage to hear it, since three hundred years alone did things to a person.

She said nothing, and Jack sighed sadly. It seemed she hadn't been able to pick up on what he'd said after all, which was quite the pity. He shouldn't have expected so much of her when she was grown up. Adults had a really hard time with things like this.

He sighed and gave her hand a gentle squeeze, even though she still couldn't feel it. Maybe she could register it on a subconscious level anyway. "Well, I'm still here for you if you ever need me. E-Even if you c-can't see..." His voice disappeared on him, and try as he might, he couldn't bring himself to finish the sentence. Oh well. It wasn't like she had been able to hear it anyway.

Jack knew he should probably get himself out of the house before he made things worse, but he couldn't bring himself to leave while she was still having salty liquid dripping down her face. He had to at least repair the damage he had done. Then he could leave.

He waved his free hand around until a snowflake circled in orbit around it. If only this trick could erase memories, but he knew that he didn't have that power. Heck, he didn't know how this trick would affect human adults as it was, but it was worth a shot. He blew the snowflake into Mrs. Bennett's face and watched as it shattered into a million blue sparkles.

Instantly, she stopped crying, struck dumb by the sudden jolt of magic. Well, she hadn't started giggling like kids usually did, but at least it had stabilized her enough that she no longer felt the need to be sad. Jack released her hand and started tiptoeing away when she started talking again.

"I'm so crazy," she said with a laugh, "but I really do wish my Snow Miser would come back. We used to have so much fun."

That stopped Jack cold. At least she was more cheerful now and laughing, but the name she'd used for him had sent shivers down his spine. No one but Susan had ever called him Snow Miser, and even she only called him that because of how much she adored The Year Without a Santa Claus. Once she had stopped calling him that in her teens, he thought he'd never hear that name again. It seemed he had been wrong.

"What did you say?" He slowly turned around to face Mrs. Bennett once again. "Did you really say that you wanted me to come back?"

A look of surprise washed over Mrs. Bennett's face, and she clapped a hand to her mouth as though she wanted to gasp. Had she actually heard him this time? Jack knew that his snowflakes had the tendency to open people up, so it was possible.

"I actually got a response," she said, not turning around to look at him. If she wasn't bothering to turn, then she must not have literally heard him or she wouldn't have been able to help it. But maybe she was perceiving him in the way she had as a child. He would take even that.

She then laughed as though she suspected she was going mad. "It seems my mind is so lonely that it's willing to make you up again, Mr. Miser. Think you can handle being an adult's imaginary friend, or will you just make my life a living hell since I'm not supposed to have imaginary friends at my age?"

Jack smirked and crossed his arms. So she thought she was making him up, did she? Well, he would see about that. It might take him some time, but he was sure he could arrange something once he thought about it long enough. "Does that mean you're asking me to stay?"

She choked slightly on the question, but then chuckled awkwardly and began to nod. "Only if you're not going to ruin my adult life. I have responsibilities and such now."

Jack rolled his eyes. "Relax. I'm not like Drop Dead Fred. I _have_ actually seen you grow up. And I _do_ know what growing up means. I'm not an idiot. Usually."

The two of them shared a chuckle at that, and then she scratched the back of her head like she was trying to think, but had forgotten how to. "Well, then um, welcome back... I guess?"

He couldn't help it, and he just got a laughing fit that started from his belly and worked its way over the rest of his body until he could no longer stand as he crumpled to the floor and continued laughing. Mrs. Bennett contributed a few awkward laughs herself, clearly not sure why he was reacting this way and probably thinking it was just further proof that she was going insane. But she needed to relax, because it wasn't Mrs. Bennett who was losing her mind, it was Jack. He didn't even know why he was laughing. Or what had made him laugh this hard.

It couldn't have been more than half an hour later before Mrs. Bennett finally decided that she ought to get herself to bed, so Jack figured he should probably leave her be and not freeze up the place. Before he could hop back up into the crawlspace, however, Mrs. Bennett caught sight of the open trap door.

"That's odd," she said. "Who opened this?" And before Jack knew what hit him, she was off to find herself a stool to stand on and put the trap door back in place. Jack winced at his own carelessness and hopped up through the opening in the ceiling before she had the chance to shut it and make his exit more challenging. Both Jamie and Sophie usually left their bedroom windows open, so he could still get out, but there was always a chance of waking them up and having to explain what he was doing there, and he didn't want that.

Within a couple minutes, Mrs. Bennett had the crawlspace closed off again as it was supposed to be. He was going to have to come up with smarter ways to break into the house from now on. It wasn't stalking anymore, he reminded himself. She wanted him around again. So he wasn't a creeper... right? Somehow he still wasn't sure where the line was supposed to be drawn, or whether he would manage to cross that line under the influence of the stupid arrow.

He flopped back onto the floor of the crawlspace, kicking up a cloud of dust as he did so and making him choke for a couple minutes until it settled down and let him breathe again. It was too exhausting to think of going out and finding some place to hide or rest until he could justify coming back and pestering Mrs. Bennett some more. Maybe he could just get away with sleeping here for a while, so long as he didn't kick up any more dust.

So with that, he closed his eyes and dreamt about the little girl he had known long ago. The one who had known him as Snow Miser.

_**Aaaand that's a chapter! Any thoughts? Suggestions? Questions? Random fangirling? Leave me a review and let me know what you think. It really helps me improve my stories if I know what you guys are thinking as you read it. :)**_

**_Anyway, I hope you liked the chapter. I'll try to get another one written up soon. Until then, take care, and see you next time!_**


	4. Chapter 4

_**Hey, everyone! Sorry for the wait, but hooray, finally managed to write a new chapter! You can thank that ridiculous book I read yesterday about Cupid for that. *rolls eyes* I couldn't believe how ridiculous that author was overall with his writing, but hey, it inspired me to actually be able to write again, so it seems to have been worth it!**_

_**To the mythology buffs among my readers: I'm terribly sorry if I messed up anything. Feel free to tell me if I did, but I tried to remain as accurate as I knew how.**_

_**Disclaimer: Still don't own ROTG. Don't own any of the mythology either, but that's all in the public domain by now, so peh. *chuckles***_

Considering how rare it was for Jack to actually need sleep, he couldn't stay asleep for long, and his eyes fluttered open while he was still enveloped by darkness. The dawn had not come yet. He wasn't sure whether that was a good thing or a bad thing. It meant he wouldn't pester the Bennetts for a few more hours yet, but it also meant the pang of loneliness started to take hold again.

He pushed himself up and stared at the trickle of moonlight shining in through the hole he had escaped into while hiding from the Guardians. While he knew he was starting to develop strong feelings for Mrs. Bennett, he didn't think those feelings could possibly be real. If it took magic to trigger them, then didn't that make the feelings fake?

He sighed and crawled over to the moonlit gap and peered out so he could gaze at the property within view. Part of him, probably the part of his heart that had been infected by Cupid's crazy arrow, wanted to just stay and bask in these new and weird sensations. Despite the pain, there was something strangely pleasurable about it. Especially now that Mrs. Bennett had actually acknowledged that she wanted him around.

But he closed his eyes and shook his head. No, he had to retain control of his mind as much as he possibly could. None of this was real. He had to find a cure or some way of getting out of this situation. And he had to do it soon. That only left him with one option, and he didn't like it.

He had to find Cupid.

Jack rolled his eyes at the thought of confronting the annoying guy who had put him in this situation in the first place, but there was no one else he knew who could get him the answers he needed, so he was just going to have to suck it up and deal with the unpleasant conversation. Jack took a breath for courage, then darted out into the night.

Now, it was one thing to decide to go and talk to Cupid, but it was quite another thing to find him. The guy could be anywhere. Add that to the fact that the guy was responsible for legends that came out of different countries than Jack had ever focused on, and things got really confusing. Jack had legends in Scandinavia, Russia, England, Germany, and a few other countries that had then passed their stories on to people across the sea. Cupid's legends mainly came from Ancient Greek and Roman Mythology. He wasn't even entirely sure how the system with all the deities Cupid associated with worked, but he was going to have to wing it.

After several minutes of searching the local area, all his hopes that he might find Cupid just randomly spying on him were crushed. It wasn't going to be an easy search. Then again, maybe that was a good thing. The thought of being spied on by Cupid was creepy anyway.

So Jack took off at top speed in the first direction he had could think of. Suddenly an idea settled over him. Didn't the winds have legends that spanned both of their terrains?

"Hey, Wind," said Jack, "You wouldn't have happened to see Cupid anywhere recently, would you have?"

_I can't say that I have, _whispered the wind in its gentle tone. _But I'm pretty sure his wife is at home right now._

Jack raised an eyebrow as he regarded this. Cupid's wife? He knew Cupid had one, but he had never met her. He felt shy all of a sudden and hesitated. This was a battle between Jack and Cupid, not between Jack and Cupid's wife.

Still, if he wanted to get this problem resolved, he needed to not throw out an opportunity like this just because he was scared. He finally nodded and squeaked out, "Okay," and the wind cheerfully picked him up and carried him where it wished.

Jack could hardly process where he was going as the wind whisked him away. One thing was for sure, and that was that he had never before gone to where he was now, wherever this was. He could see the earth from this place, like he was looking down from somewhere up high. He was used to being up high and looking down on the people below, but there was something surreal about this place. Something, dare he say... divine?

He shook his head to clear it as best he could as the wind set him down on the ground. He shivered slightly at the unfamiliar soil beneath his feet. "Wind," he said, "what is this place?"

"Olympus," came the response somewhere to Jack's side, causing Jack to do a double take. The wind had never spoken aloud to him before. "Cupid is a god, after all."

Jack's breath hitched in his throat as his gaze fell on the source of the voice. This land was strange beyond all measure. So much so that it had changed the wind's form from an invisible mass to that of a winged man standing next to him. Jack would have thought the guy could be related to Cupid if he hadn't known better. Or perhaps he was. Wasn't everyone in Olympus married to their brother or something?

A quick check of Jack's own features, and he breathed a sigh of relief that he at least hadn't appeared to change at all. That was one less scary thing to deal with. It must have just been a quirk of the wind to change like that when he came here.

An amused chuckle escaped the wind's lips, and he gestured to a path that he began to walk down and intended for Jack to follow. Jack nodded belatedly and fell into step behind the wind, being careful to stay as close to him as possible so as not to get lost in this strange and unfamiliar place.

"What's the matter, Jack?" said the wind with even more mirth sneaking its way into his voice. "No one's going to bite you here, I promise."

"No, no, I-" Jack shook his head at such a bizarre thought. Why would the wind even suggest such a ridiculous notion? "Bite me?" he repeated, only to earn a laugh from the wind. Jack then cleared his throat and said, "It's just that this place is so strange. I've never been here before."

"It shouldn't seem that strange to you. Your family of legends have a similar place to be," said the wind. "You've been to Asgard before, haven't you?"

"Only a few times," said Jack. "Thor and Loki have kind of been out for my blood after I cheated at that poker game."

This only resulted in an eruption of laughter from the wind, and Jack slowly felt his tension melt away. He may not have been accustomed to the wind appearing in that form or in this place, but he was still the same being Jack had always known and been such close friends with, and if he thought that this place was fine, then perhaps it was.

At last they came to a palace, and Jack's walking once again halted from intimidation, but at the wind's prodding hand on his back, he shakily walked forward again. Did Cupid seriously live here? It would take someone with a lot of power to have a home like this, and somehow that idea didn't sit well with Jack. He'd always just thought of Cupid as being like himself: frivolous and childlike without being able to stay put in any one place for too long. The thought of Cupid being able to have a huge palace like this had never crossed his mind, and he was beginning to regret coming here.

They reached the front doors, and without their having to do anything, the door swung out to meet them. The wind took this as an open invitation and sauntered into the palace, dragging a fussy Jack Frost behind him who insisted that they had to at least try to knock first. Normally, Jack thought that knocking was more a suggestion than a requirement, but when faced with a powerful god, he was willing to obey that suggestion to the letter.

After a brief moment, someone came out to meet them. "Hello," said the woman, "Can I help you?"

"My friend here," said the wind as he shook Jack's arm, "has business with Cupid. But if he's not home, then we would like to speak with the lady of the house."

The woman nodded before starting to walk away. "It'll be just a minute."

Jack didn't own a watch, but it seemed as though it had literally taken exactly a minute for someone to show up for them. Olympus time was weird, and he had no idea how they did that. Even Asgard wasn't this strange, and Asgard was pretty strange.

"Boreas!" cried the new voice as soon as she came into view. "How nice to see you!"

Jack raised an eyebrow and looked at the wind, trying very hard to stifle a chuckle. "You go by Boreas here?"

The wind, who apparently also identified as Boreas rolled his eyes and looked down at Jack with a huff. Jack couldn't deduce whether the huff derived from amusement or disdain. "I go by a few names here, yes. Psyche happens to like my Greek name."

A startled laugh escaped from the woman's lips, and Jack finally turned to get a good look at her. His gut lurched once he saw how amazingly gorgeous she was. If he had been shallow enough to choose beauty over anything else, he would have been very jealous of Cupid for managing to get a girl like this.

"But the Greek is lovely!" she said, only to lose herself to laughter again at seeing Jack's vacant expression. "Oh, my dear, you look so lost. Tell me, what do you normally call Boreas where you're from?"

Jack's mouth twitched up in an attempt to smile and make himself appear less stupid, but it was clear that it was a lost cause before he even tried, and his shoulders intervened by going into a shrug to save whatever was left of his dignity. "Uh, the wind?"

Another laugh emanated from the beautiful woman's throat. "But, how do you tell Boreas apart from the other winds?"

Jack blinked at this strange question. "Come again?"

Finally, Boreas came to the rescue as he clapped a hand onto Jack's shoulder. "You'll have to forgive my comrade here. He's really young and hasn't yet learned to tell us apart."

Jack jerked his head up to stare at the wind being that accompanied him and regarded him with an almost horrified expression. "Wait," he said, "there are more than one of you?"

Both Psyche and Boreas clapped their hands over their mouths and looked like they were trying as hard as they could to keep themselves from laughing, but Jack wasn't fooled. His eyebrow twitched in poorly concealed frustration. These people were older than him. He could clearly see that. It didn't mean they had to treat him like a child just because he didn't understand everything yet.

Psyche cleared her throat. "Pardon my behavior. Shall we go somewhere more comfortable where we can talk?"

Jack wasn't sure why she had phrased that as a question, because she didn't wait for an answer as she started walking in a random direction and motioned for them to follow. She led them to a spacious room with comfortable chairs and cushions all around. A large, multi-tiered fountain added to the ambiance in one corner. A little baby Cupid statuette stood at the top of the fountain, threatening whoever chose to enter the room with an arrow drawn tight in his bow. Figured.

They sat in comfortable places around the room, Jack choosing to pick a seat that let the little baby Cupid stay at his back so he wouldn't have to look at it. The real Cupid wasn't a baby anyway. He was a full grown man whose idea of extreme modesty was a simple loincloth that he only wore when facing people whose sensibilities were too easily frightened.

Psyche's servants brought in tray after tray of fruits, breads, cheeses, and even wine. She invited Jack and Boreas to help themselves to whatever they liked. Jack was hesitant at first, but after he saw Boreas head straight for the wine without a second thought, he figured that Psyche wasn't going to mind if he took a little fruit and cheese. He really hoped Boreas didn't get himself drunk though. He was literally Jack's ride home.

"Now," said Psyche, finally taking on a more serious air in her tone, "I'm told that you have business with my husband Eros?"

Jack blinked again and repeated, "Eros?" only to remember a moment later that Psyche seemed to prefer the Greek names of things. That was probably Cupid's Greek name. He smacked his forehead, eliciting a chuckle from the other two at seeing him figure it out on his own.

It was Boreas who answered her question first. "I'm only here to help Jack. He has some questions he needs to ask."

This seemed to surprise her a bit, but she then turned to face Jack. "Oh? And how do you know Boreas and Eros?"

Jack sighed and rubbed his forehead. It figured that not everyone had heard of him yet, though it pained him to realize that. He didn't think that Psyche left Olympus too often though, so a detail like that could easily be missed.

"Well, um, B-Boreas..." he said, stumbling over the unfamiliar name, "he carries me wherever I need to go to do my work. As well as the other winds I guess?" He looked up to Boreas at this, who nodded in confirmation. "And, well, Cupid... uh, your husband... he just shot me yesterday." He hung his head abashedly. "I have no idea how to keep doing the work I need to do."

Psyche seemed to be thinking over this for a moment. "Really? I would have taken you for a mortal, though that is an unusual guest to have here in Olympus. But you speak as though you have some sort of divine duties, or else Boreas surely wouldn't have brought you here."

Jack nodded at this. "I'm not sure whether you've heard about me or not, but I am currently one of the spirits of winter as well as the newest member of the Guardians of Childhood."

A worried look crossed Psyche's features, and her hand slowly made its way to cover her mouth. "A Guardian of Childhood?" She closed her eyes and began to shake her head. "No, he wouldn't have done that. Not my Eros. He knows better than to break an agreement of peace between different factions of the spirit world."

"Heh." Jack hung his head uncomfortably and twiddled his fingers. How was he going to keep telling this story to people over and over again without going insane? It was terribly embarrassing. "It was kind of my fault," he said. "I jumped in front of his arrow."

Psyche gasped. "But whatever for?"

Jack slowly raised his head, daring himself to look her in the eye and admit to his own stupidity, but without compromising what he believed in. He'd had a reason to get himself messed up in all of this in the first place. It was important that he not cower away from it now.

"Cupid was pointing his arrow at someone who would have become smitten with the mother in a family I hold very dear to my heart, but I didn't trust the guy he was about to shoot. So... I intervened. Impulsively."

"Very," said Boreas, downing his goblet of wine. Jack wasn't sure whether that was his first goblet or not. "Stupidest thing I've ever seen him do, and I've seen a lot of stupid things while parading him around."

Jack shot a glare at the offending spirit of the wind. "No one asked _you_."

Boreas just laughed and continued drinking, and Jack just sighed and shook his head. He had no idea how long he was going to be stranded in Olympus at this rate if his designated flier was out for the count.

"So then," said Psyche after recovering from the brief distraction of Boreas and trying to graciously ignore it, "what exactly have you come all this way to ask?"

Jack gulped. So it was finally to this point, but now he was afraid to move his lips. Psyche seemed nice enough, but what if he offended her and she ratted on him to her husband? Or worse, what if he fumbled over his words so much that he never even got the answers he had come all this way for? He couldn't allow that. This was too important.

He took a deep breath and licked his lips. Here we go. He looked up at her and said, "Is there a cure?"

A long and awkward silence passed between the two of them as they just stared at each other. Jack shivered under her penetrating gaze and started wondering if she might make a better winter spirit than he did if she could make him shiver like that. But that was silly, wasn't it? She didn't have such powers as far as he knew.

Finally, Psyche ended the silence with a barely audible phrase of, "Eros has never spoken of one."

Jack cried out in frustration and threw his head in his hands. His head shook violently from side to side as he began to sob, all false cheer suddenly gone from his appearance. "But I can't work. I can't do my job of protecting children because I just can't stop thinking about _her_, and I know it's only going to get worse. He has no idea how this feels! He has no clue of the pain this causes when he does this to someone!"

Psyche then cleared her throat. "He does."

That stopped Jack cold as he tried to process what she had meant by that. "He does?"

She nodded and reaffirmed what she'd said before. "He does."

Jack slowly lifted his head out of his hands and looked up at the woman before him, trying to read the inner meaning of her words off her face, but he failed. Finally, he just gave in and voiced the question on his mind. "But how could he possibly know what this feels like?"

"Because," she said, "he accidentally shot himself once. He told me so."

Jack's eyebrows shot up at the mention of this, though when he thought about it, it started to make a bit of sense. He'd known that Cupid wasn't immune to his own arrows somehow, but he hadn't been sure how anyone knew that. Apparently it was because Cupid had actually gotten careless enough to find that out by accident one day. A hidden smile twitched on the edge of Jack's mouth, threatening to come out and gloat over Cupid having had to suffer through what Jack was going through now. That didn't seem the right reaction to have at the moment though, so he shoved it under and instead asked a new question.

"So who did he see first?"

Psyche smirked like the answer was the most obvious thing in the world. "Me."

Jack's mouth slowly formed a letter "O" shape as the full situation slowly dawned on him. If Cupid had actually been shot himself and had to suffer this way, then surely if there had been any sort of cure available, Cupid would have used it by now. Jack gripped the arm of his chair tightly and leaned forward. "Wait, are you telling me that after all this time, _Cupid has still not been cured?_"

She nodded solemnly. Jack slumped back into his chair and slapped his palm over his face. He had no idea when all this had gone down with Cupid and Psyche, but he suspected that the two of them had probably been married for longer than he'd even been alive, which didn't spell out anything good for Jack if even Cupid himself couldn't find a cure.

Dainty footsteps approached him, then a gentle hand pried his hand away from his face. He turned and looked up into the face of a concerned Psyche, who offered him a sad smile and said, "It's really not as bad as you think. It can work out. Eros and I are happy. I'm sure you can be happy too."

"But she's mortal!" shouted Jack.

Psyche responded to this with a smirk. "So was I."

That had stolen all the words right out of Jack's mouth. He tried to come up with something to say and only managed to salvage a, "W-What?"

Psyche chuckled. "I could tell you about it, but the tale has been told many times and in many ways, and I struggle to remember how it really happened by now. But our story has made its way into the written lore of mortals. I am sure you can find it and read it there."

Jack didn't know how to respond, so he just nodded. "Uh, thank you. Yeah, I will."

She then glanced over to where Jack's designated flier was currently passed out on a cushion, his empty goblet forgotten on the floor as he snored up a storm. Perhaps literally, somewhere in the world.

Psyche and Jack shared a grimace at this, and then she said, "I'll get someone else to take you home. Boreas has always been difficult like that anyway. I'm surprised you get along with him so well. I've never seen him so amiable with anyone before."

Jack shrugged and allowed himself to chuckle as he released the tension that had been building up from fear of not being able to get back home. Now that that was resolved, he didn't have to be afraid of it. "What can I say? I'm just one of those sorts who tends to be able to loosen everyone up I guess."

At this, Psyche smiled, then said. "Then I believe you have nothing to fear with your lady friend. Things will work out for you in time. Just be patient and your natural charm will grow on her."

Jack sighed. "But she can't even see me."

Psyche leaned forward and reiterated her main point. "Just be _patient_, I said. Everything will work out in time, you'll see."

Jack raised his eyebrows at this, honestly surprised that he was even entertaining the notion now, or that he was being encouraged to. Him? With Mrs. Bennett? Was that okay? Was that even _possible?_ Not to mention, were his feelings for her even real?

Before he had the chance to voice this latest question, she had taken advantage of the silence to go off and consult with one of her servants. A moment later, she was back and beaming with pride.

"Hermes has agreed to take you back to your home, but he's leaving right now, so you'll have to go now if you want to leave with him."

Jack looked up at her, then down at his still sitting form, then up and down a couple other times as his mind raced to catch up with her words. "Oh, um, right! Yeah, okay. I can... yeah, I can do that. Yeah." He forced himself to stand up. Leaving now would mean he couldn't ask every question on his mind, but he didn't want to risk not being able to get home. And besides, he had gotten the answer to the big question he had come for. It seemed there really was no cure. But it also seemed that it was possible to be happy despite it if one worked really hard at it. This was going to require a lot of thought.

Psyche escorted Jack out of the palace to where a man was sitting on the front step, seemingly waiting for them. That must have been Hermes. Great. Another god to deal with. Hopefully he wouldn't be as bad to deal with as Cupid was. Though Psyche had seemed nice enough, and wasn't she a goddess or something? He didn't know how these things worked, especially with her having previously been mortal and all that.

"Thank you for dropping by today," she said to Jack. "And don't hesitate to drop by again if you have another question. I'll always be more than happy to help in any way I can, and I am sure Eros will too if he's here."

"Uh, right," said Jack, not really liking the idea of dropping by and talking to Cupid in his own home, but he didn't want to be rude to this sweet lady. "I'll keep that in mind," he said. "Thanks for your hospitality."

The man on the step then stood up and slipped his arm around Jack's waist. "Well, let's get going," he said. "I've got a lot of messages to deliver and not a lot of time to do it in."

Jack nodded, not feeling in the mood to argue with the god about anything at the moment, as he just wanted to get back to his familiar territory and just relax. He'd dealt with enough gods for one day.

_**Yep, I seriously went there. I wasn't going to drag in the Greek and Roman myths simply because of Cupid's presence in the story, but I guess my muses had other ideas. Darn muses and their ideas, haha. Means this story's probably only gonna get weirder.**_

_**Anyway, thoughts on the chapter or on what you'd like to see? I absolutely would love to hear from you guys. Helps me out a lot. :)**_

_**Thanks again for reading, and I hope to see you all back here next time!**_


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